Ali Brice Presents Home is Where Eric Meat Is

Surreal hour with flashes of quality but too many laugh-free zones

Eric Meat is an odd character. He's selling his home and trying to erase all happy memories of the time he spent there in order to ease his existential angst. Off the bat, he's keen to get the audience involved, so if your idea of fun is not a competition to see who can hold a sliced onion next to their eye for the longest time or downing 3.5 litres of orange squash from a bucket, then try to be inconspicuous.

This meandering, manic hour weaves Meat's memories (which he stores in a mug: well, of course he does) with his present situation. He becomes Francine, a Pythonesque pepper pot character he once loved, and, in an inspired if creepily surreal flash, the very first Werther's Original who is due to eat his first grandpa.

For Meat, Ali Brice is channelling a bit of Alan Partridge and a touch of Adam Riches, but taking his jokes off in ridiculous directions doesn't always guarantee laughs. This feels like an unfinished show but root around and there are threads of genius. The problem is that Brice pulls too hard on them and by the end everything has unravelled.

Ali Brice / Heroes of Fringe (PWYW)
Cups are important. More important to Eric Meat than they are to most people. But then Eric isn't most people, he's just one person. Come and listen to him pour out his heart. It's full to bursting with love, joy, gratitude and chips and he'd love to share everything with you.